Tennis is one of the oldest sports that is still being played today. It is thought to have originated in France around the 12th century, with many of the same rules and structures still being used in some form today. It wasn’t until the 16th century that a racquet was introduced. It was a game exclusively for high society, with famous figures such as Henry VIII being fans of the game.
The game as we know it today was originally called lawn tennis and was first played in Birmingham in the late 19th century. The game’s oldest and most famous championship is Wimbledon, which was first played in 1887. Wimbledon forms one of the four Grand Slam events, which includes the US Open (1881), French Open (1891) and Australian Open (1905). These four prestigious tournaments remain the biggest prizes in the game today.
What is tennis?
Tennis is one of the world’s premier racquet sports and is played by millions throughout the world. It’s a sport played by men, women, the young and the old. Tennis is a relatively simple sport to follow and play. Participants can either play singles – a format where one player directly plays another – or doubles where two players take on another two.
Tennis is played on a court that measures 23.77 metres in length and is divided in the middle by a net that stands at just over one metre high. The objective of the game is to beat your opponent by getting them to hit the ball into the net, hitting the ball past them via a winning stroke, or getting your opponent to hit the ball outside of the court’s dimensions. One ball is used, and the ball is allowed to bounce once.
A tennis match is comprised of sets, and often a player needs to win at least two sets to win the match. Matches are usually the best of three sets, apart from in the Grand Slam tournaments where men compete over the best of five sets. To win a set, a player must win six games. To win a game, a player must win four points.
Betting on tennis
Tennis is one of the most bet on sports in the world. Bettors can wager on a host of tournaments from all over the world and place a huge variety of bets. A common tennis bet is betting on the winner of a match. Simply put, this is when a bettor backs player A to beat player B. Often, value can be tricky to find in a tennis market, particularly when one player is ranked significantly higher than another. To find some value, bettors can bet on the number of sets that will be played, or how many sets a player might win. Bettors can also try to find some enhanced value in betting – for example, whether a certain number of games will be played.
For more information on how to bet and the different bets you can place on tennis, watch our tennis underdog betting section closely.
